Don’t Get Left Behind: Why You Should Invest in Employee Onboarding Software

Published:

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

| Author:

Kelly Cordrey

Historically, HR departments have not been on the receiving end of a budget dedicated to the latest and greatest technology. In fact, it seems that in just the past few years, companies have recognized the value of investing in it, particularly when it comes to new hires. Managing and maintain a healthy work environment is just as important as managing your customer relationships. Employees judge a company by how well their policies are developed and by the overall atmosphere of the company. Today’s top candidates want to work for companies that invest in their culture and technology.

The goal of talent acquisition now extends beyond recruiting and hiring. If employers hope to excel here, they must focus on putting their new hires on the road to success and retaining them. To make employees feel welcome and like they made the right choice in accepting a job offer from your company, it’s important to develop a well thought-out onboarding program to assimilate new employees into an organization. A formal onboarding program is shown to boost worker productivity by 54 percent and employee retention by 50 percent.

In a study from Learnkit, 53 percent of people surveyed said they would like their jobs more if they had better training. A successful onboarding program provides new hires with the resources to become fully engaged members of a productive workforce. To provide the best experience for your new hires, your organization needs to properly prepare for your HR technology purchase. Think about this just as you would any other investment. Do your homework and educate yourself on what you hope to gain from your employee onboarding software. Set your customers, in this case—your employees, up for success. In addition to streamlining your company’s talent acquisition initiatives, your software can offer a return on your investment just like any other purchase.

Employers need to take a look at what is the most efficient way to implement an onboarding program and get new hires up to speed. Employee onboarding software ensures that your process is well- planned and flexible enough to vary from person-to-person, as employees will have different requirements depending on where they are in their careers, job functions, and geographic locations. It should also enable employers to clearly and consistently communicate their brand with new hires, as well as set milestones to provide opportunities for accomplishments and provide the employee with both company onboarding elements, as well as more job-specific tasks.

With multiple new employees starting at a company at the same time, handling them effectively is not only difficult, but is also crucial to their productivity. New hire onboarding software allows HR and employees to create and store tasks, keeping everyone on track with due dates and automatic reminders. Welcome messages are automatically sent to new hires. With employee onboarding software, paperwork is virtually eliminated with electronic onboarding forms, all of which can be completed before the new hire’s first day. Employee verification forms can be signed, managed and stored to streamline the verification process, ensuring newly hired employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S.

While the benefits to onboarding clearly show that it pays for itself, many companies state that the cost to implementing an onboarding program is prohibitive. Yet, in the U.K. and U.S. alone, an estimated $37 billion dollars is spent annually to keep unproductive employees who do not understand their jobs, with 35 percent of companies spending zero dollars on onboarding. While onboarding may initially seem more expensive and more labor intensive, new employees who attended a well-structured onboarding orientation program were 69 percent more likely to remain at a company up to three years. As you gather your planned expenses and prepare next year’s budget remember the importance of employee onboarding software and how it can contribute to your company’s success.